_ of
_these_, may make the _Rules_ about the _latter_ unnecessary. However,
it is fit, we should be always provided with proper _Means of Defence_
against so terrible an _Enemy_.

MAY this short _Essay_ be received as one Instance, among many others,
of the Care, you always shew for Your Country; and as a Testimony of the
great Esteem and Respect, with which I have the Honour to be,

_SIR_,

_Your most obedient, and
Most humble Servant,_

R. MEAD.

Nov. 25.
1720.

THE CONTENTS.

The Preface, Page i

PART I.

_Of the_ PLAGUE _in General_.

CHAP I. Of the Origine and Nature of the PLAGUE, 1

CHAP II. Of the Causes which spread the PLAGUE, 41

PART II.

_Of the Methods to be taken against the_ PLAGUE.

CHAP I. Of preventing Infection from other Countries, 80

CHAP II. Of stopping the Progress of the PLAGUE,
if it should enter our Country, 100

CHAP III. Of the Cure of the PLAGUE, 151

THE PREFACE.

THIS Book having at first been written only as a Plan of Directions for
preserving our Country from the =Plague=[1] was then very short and
concise. An Act of Parliament being immediately after made for
performing =Quarantaines= &c. according to the Rules here laid down, it
passed through seven Editions in one year without any Alterations. I
then thought proper to make some =Additions= to it, in order to shew the
Reasonableness of the Methods prescribed, by giving a more full
Description of this Disease, and collecting some Examples of the good
Success which had attended such Measures, when they had been put in
Practice. At the same time I annex'd a short Chapter relating to the
Cure of the Plague; being induced thereto by considering how widely most
Authors have erred in prescribing a Heap of useless and very often
hurtful Medicines, which they recommend under the specious Titles of
=Antidotes=, =Specifics= and =Alexipharmacs=: hoping that the great
Resemblance, which I had observed between this Disease and the =Small
Pox=, would justify my writing upon a Distemper which I have never
seen.

INDEED the =Small Pox= is a true =Plague=, tho' of a particular kind,
bred, as I have shewn all Pestilences are, in the same hot =Egyptian=
Climate, and brought into =Asia= and =Europe= by the way of Commerce;
but most remarkably by the War with the =Saracens=, c